By Celina Wald, Elena Iwanski, Malek S, Pierre, Stéphanie-Fabienne Lacombe/ 21.8.2020

Malek is 30 years old, holds a Master degree in English and linguistics and is now facing challenges he did not expect when he decided to seek asylum in Mayotte in 2019. Him and his two roommates will have to leave their room by the end of the month. As a consequence of the lock-down linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, they have not been able to pay their rent, and the landlord appears to have run out of patience. The floor of the tiny room in Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, is covered in painted tiles. Blankets and pillows lie on the floor which will be used as three improvised beds for the night. A small cupboard and a tatty sofa have been left behind by previous tenants that came to seek asylum in Mayotte, a French overseas department like Malek. The young Yemenite is trying to keep his head up, but sometimes he is simply overwhelmed by the impact of the lock-down. “I feel like I am counting the remaining days of my life”, he says at the start of our video call in the beginning of May.

Currently, 1670 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed on the island. The lock-down regulations issued by the French government, have confined the inhabitants of overseas territories to their homes. For asylum seekers in Mayotte, the latter often consist of no more than a single room they share with others, or minuscule huts made of tin.

Mayotte: a place of increased asylum applications

Mayotte, an island located within the Comoros archipelago between Madagascar and Mozambique, became an overseas department of France in 2011 and an outermost region of the EU in 2014.

Due to its geographical location Mayotte is increasingly receiving applications for asylum from the Comoros, but also the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda as well as Syria, Yemen and Cameroon. In 2018, a total of 809 asylum applications were registered on the island (Rapport d’activité OFPRA 2018, Rapport d’activité Solidarité Mayotte 2018). Most of the applicants are not aware of the precarious situation of asylum seekers in Mayotte, and the risk of becoming stranded on the island. “I believed I would have the same rights as asylum seekers in other parts of the EU”, explains Malek, who had scrutinised the web before embarking on the journey. What he lacked information about, was the huge discrepancy between mainland France and Mayotte when it comes to the enforcement of asylum seekers’ rights.

A part of the EU where asylum seekers’ rights are disregarded

Malek’s journey from Yemen to Mayotte lasted almost two months and cost a few thousand dollars. Due to restrictive visa regulations for Yemenites, after taking several flights, he had no other option than to go by boat from Madagascar to the Comoros. “These 26 hours were the most dangerous situation I have ever faced in my life”, he describes the trip on a tiny sailing boat with 20 people aboard, all hoping for a future in safety.

On arrival, the asylum seekers were on their own. Malek knew that Solidarité Mayotte, an NGO based in Mamoudzou, was key in organising support for asylum seekers on the island. Having written down their contact details, he approached their office. Solidarité Mayotte offers help regarding bureaucratic procedures and provides a little financial support to asylum seekers. They also host accommodation facilities, although they are insufficient for the number of people arriving. “I basically helped myself”, reports Malek, who initially sought shelter in a mosque, where he stayed for the first 15 days.

In theory, the asylum legislation in Mayotte and mainland France is the same. In France, registered asylum seekers have the right to accommodation, financial support, health care, and can apply for a work permit after 6 months. In practise, asylum seekers in Mayotte are systematically being denied these rights: accomodation is not provided by authorities, and renting a room is often impossible without official documents. Work permits are virtually inaccessible, and the financial support system does not exist on the French island. Solidarité Mayotte has already denounced this very precarious situation in their first report of activity from 2008. Nothing has changed since then (Report of France Terre d’Asile 2019).

Obtaining documents – a cumbersome process

Pierre, a political refugee from Burundi, who arrived in Mayotte in 2017, also sought shelter in a mosque before he found another place to stay. Already having spent a few years in Mayotte, he states: “In the beginning, you really need to find your way through here alone, and ask your conationals for help.” ‘Never give up’ became his mantra during that time.

Not only were Malek and Pierre denied support, the bureaucratic process was also rendered more difficult than on the continent. It took almost a year for Malek to get a first hearing with OFPRA, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons. OFPRA is responsible for all asylum applications submitted at the departmental administration in France, both mainland and overseas territories. However, in Mayotte, OFPRA does not have a permanent office. Therefore, Malek had to wait for the OFPRA delegation to travel to Mayotte for their fact finding mission.

“I ask the French government to help the people in Mayotte and to improve the application process, so that people don’t have to wait so long to get their papers”, insists Pierre. Indeed, the entire procedure requires long waiting times often including repeated queuing in front of the ‘préfecture’, the departmental institution handling registrations. Appointments can be made online, but include only a date, and not a specific hour – which makes early travelling and queuing necessary to ensure being heard. Additionally, since handing in documents online is impossible one might need to go through this procedure several times if something was missing. On top of that, due to infrastructural problems such as power-cuts, last-minute cancellations of long-awaited hearings with the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) are not uncommon. These hearings happen via video call, since the institution does not have a permanent presence in Mayotte either.

Bridging the time: Of patience and agency

For Malek, these procedures meant 11 months of uncertainties, during which he was not allowed to work. Obtaining a work permit is impossible during the first six months of a case is being treated by OFPRA – and is in general a lengthy process. The absence of a meaningful occupation is what Malek describes as a “slow death”. Therefore, he started to volunteer. Aware of the importance and lack of emotional and practical support for asylum seekers, Malek is now helping others arriving in Mayotte. As a translator, he accompanies people to the hospital or to bureaucratic procedures and helps wherever he can.

On the one hand, Mayotte is lacking qualified personnel for its deficient public health care sector and overcrowded public schools. For instance, France’s spending per student in Mayotte reach only ⅔ of what the State is spending on a student on the mainland. On the other hand, immigrants often bring the needed academic qualifications but are not allowed to make use of them. Instead, they are forced to turn towards the informal sector and become vulnerable to exploitation, generating their income as street vendors, household helpers or workers on construction sites. “At home I was an academic, while in Mayotte I was selling onions”, reveals Pierre, who has paradoxically often been accused by customers of having fled his country to take advantage of Mayotte’s wealth.

The social environment of Mayotte is undeniably far from welcoming. Malek experienced a few verbally offensive encounters with Mayotte’s inhabitants, but is generally convinced that “Mahorians are good”. Pierre’s experience has been different: his request for asylum has been accepted and he found a job in Mayotte. He nevertheless suffers from racism, and plans to leave the island: “Some Mahorians think that we have no right to live here.” Mayotte has the highest unemployment rate in the EU, while low salaries combined with high living costs are putting additional pressure on the inhabitants. These struggles are one of the reasons for Mahorians’ partly negative reaction to immigrants. As if the administrative and social adversities had not been enough, “in March 2020, chaos arrived”, affirms Malek.

Raising problems owing to the Covid-19 shut-down

Indeed, France’s strict confinement rules in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic have hit the most vulnerable the hardest. 40% of Mayotte’s population live in tin huts, where access to sanitary infrastructure is not guaranteed, 30% of all houses lack running water.

For asylum seekers the situation is particularly delicate. President Macron’s strict confinement measures deprive people of the opportunity to generate a day-by-day income, which makes respecting confinement rules very difficult. Or as Malek puts it: “Outside we get the virus, inside we get the virus called hunger. The difference between the two is that Covid kills mostly people who are at the age of 55-60 years, but hunger and poverty do not differentiate between ages. However, it does not affect politicians or wealthy people, so it is being systematically overlooked.” Pierre comments on French authorities’ incapacity: “It’s an injustice! The government knows about our existence from the moment we ask for papers. But some groups of people have just been forgotten.” Asylum seekers have indeed been overlooked during public distributions of food. Police presence is not lacking on the island. Breaking confinement rules therefore means taking the risk of being fined. Malek observes that: “most people are respecting the confinement rules, but others don’t care anymore. They cannot be staying home with cuffed hands waiting for an ambiguous destiny.”

Pierre, just like Malek, took the decision to help. With the help of friends and relatives abroad, he initiated an international network to raise funds, in order to be able to buy and distribute food to people in need. “Those people had lost their hope, but the relief action has given it back to them. Now they can live again, thanks to the help of people they do not even know. It seems like a miracle for them.” But they remain dependent on the help of Pierre and his network, at least for the duration of the confinement.

This relief action has reached many migrants at the very last minute, but the underlying problems stay the same. As President Macron is slowly releasing confinement measures on the mainland (and a week later, also Mayotte), Covid-19 has exacerbated existing inequalities even more.

“We haven’t come to Mayotte to enjoy ourselves. We left because we were facing many problems in our home countries. We left our old lives behind to save our lives”, explains Pierre. He will continue the distribution of food until the situation stabilises. Malek, also, continues his volunteer work as a translator, while waiting for a positive decision from OFPRA and his family to join him. “The internet connection in the villages in Yemen is so bad, I can’t even do video calls to see my wife and daughter”, he remarks. His major hope is to finally settle down and work: “It doesn’t matter if it will be in Mayotte, La Réunion, or continental Europe. All I want is to live in peace.”

Shortly before having to leave his room, Malek has luckily found another temporary accommodation. It is no more than a room in a basement, but at least it is affordable and provides a roof over his head – a gleam of hope in difficult times.

This article was first published on thenewfederalist.eu, the magazine of the Young European Federalists. The content they produce is also published in French, German and English.

Der Beitrag FROM PERSON IN NEED TO HERO INDEED: WHEN MAYOTTE’S ASYLUM SEEKERS BECOME VERITABLE CHANGE MAKERS erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Antoine / 09.03.2019

Antoine took this decision because he wanted to get out of Paris, to discover new things and especially to make himself useful! He had already been a volunteer with Utopia 56 in Paris (an organisation that gives aid to refugees), and he knew the association was also working in Calais. He thought: why not?

On the 24th October 2016, the refugee camp in Calais was destroyed by law enforcement. But that doesn’t mean to say there’s no-one there anymore. After all, migrants have tried to get to England since the fall of the Berlin wall.
The refugees are hiding in the region, largely sticking to groups of their own ethnicity. There is a sea of Eritreans, Afghans, Somalians…

Unfortunately, Calais is not the only place that has seen an influx of refugees; there is also the large Grande-Synthe camp next to Dunkirk, mostly made up of families. On 6th September 2018, it also underwent an eviction of more than a thousand people. But this isn’t really a solution to the problem, because they all come back to try to get to England, every time they are driven away.

Refugees in the rain ©Utopia56

But why are the refugees coming to Calais? The people Antoine shared a mobile-home with explained migrants come to Calais to be able to go to England. There it is much easier to work, rent a house, send your children to school while being undocumented.

They also told Antoine that some refugees have started their lives there, had worked for years and then one day the police showed up, asked to see their papers and sent them back where they came from: which is to say, on the other side of the world, where they knew no-one and wasted no time leaving again to go back to England, braving all the dangers of the journey. Moreover, before reaching England, some had already tried to live or seek asylum in many European countries without success. Some also wanted to join family that already lived in England.

Charities in Calais In Calais, eight associations are based in a warehouse. They all do different work, such as providing food, education, access to healthcare. The co-ordination and co-operation between them is quite uncomplicated and they are all very compatible with each other. Because of this they have been able to pool their skills and facilitate communication between themselves.

Despite the large number of volunteers, Antoine found them all to be very professional. There were 120 of them when he was on site during summer, but in winter that number gets a lot smaller.

The volunteers in the warehouse do so many different things! Cooking, making tea, sorting donations, mending clothes, chopping pallets to give wood to refugees: the work is very varied.

It is on a scale of gigantic proportions: they made tea in 120 litre tanks all day long, 20 of the volunteers cooked 1,200 meals per day in a kitchen up to professional hygiene standards.

Each day, several different jobs were offered to Antoine and it was completely up to him to pick the ones he wanted to do. The warehouse also needs people with specific skills; people who know how to do something useful like knowledge of car mechanics, video editing, photography or hairdressing would all be a bonus to the warehouse! This is by no means an exhaustive list, and the warehouse is open to all suggestions!

Sorting donations ©Utopia56

Antoine tells us about the food and clothes distribution to refugees with Utopia 56.
The teams were made up of three to a van, accompanied by a team leader. There were five designated distribution points with hours for when distribution would take place.

During the day, the volunteers asked the refugees if everything was alright, let them use their generators to charge their phones, and offered hygiene kits and water. They talked, drank tea and played cards with them while their phones charged.

In the evenings, on top of what they did during the day, the volunteers handed out food cooked at the warehouse to them, and clothes. There was a team of coordinators who made sure their more specific needs were taken care of, such as sheltering vulnerable people, and ensured everything ran smoothly for the volunteers.

Food distribution ©Utopia56

Someone asked Antoine if he was not scared during his first distribution. His answer is: no not at all! Before his first time distributing, he attended training for three hours in the warehouse. His team leader explained his role to him before they left, what he should and shouldn’t do, and guided him throughout the distribution.

Utopia 56 first sends new volunteers to daytime distributions, because these are more straightforward, then moves them to the evening sessions. Antoine always tells: All in all, I’d say that doing distribution to everyone who comes out of the forest is quite overwhelming, but Utopia 56 takes good care of its volunteers.

The atmosphere with the refugees was great. It’s easy to make friends with them. First and foremost, the team leaders and field co-ordinators know them well and encourage getting to know the refugees.

Getting ready for distribution ©Utopia56

At the end of his stay, Antoine taught two Somalians how to play the card game Egyptian Ratscrew (la bataille corse) which they played together. Communication was quite simple, because the majority speak English or French at some level.

Antoine did a distribution one evening when it was raining and the atmosphere was less congenial. He could already see them getting angry with each other. According to ‘long term’ volunteers, you need nerves of steel to do distributions at night, in winter, in the cold and snow.

The police The French government is paid by the British government to prevent migrants from going to the UK. So the French police do everything to make migrants leave the region. The implementation of this policy includes demolishing different camps and a number of tactics to counter refugees, and also the volunteers that help them.

A report on this topic was published on the 7th August 2018. It is available in English (here) and French (here).

Despite these somewhat alarming facts, and CRS (French riot police) intervening in the case of an improperly-parked van in front of the warehouse, Antoine never heard anyone say “today I had a run-in with the police”. The only ones who really had trouble with the police were long-term volunteers who had more trickier, ‘delicate’ jobs.
What’s more, all the work the associations do is completely legal and should really be being carried out by the French state.

A peaceful distribution during the day. We are waiting for phones to charge while drinking tea ©Utopia56

The media The media isn’t talking about Calais anymore. Why? When the jungle was still there, the refugees were much more visible. Now they live hidden away out of fear of the police, but they’re very much still there! The government is pursuing a policy that intentionally makes refugees invisible.

Antoine’s experience Antoine loved the experience with the other volunteers. These were anywhere between 18 and 75 years old, and came from all over the place! They were English, Irish, Spanish, Italian, German, Czechs, Americans, Congolese and Indians. A funny anecdote is the American who came to visit France for three months: he heard all these people speaking English and never left!

Every morning, everybody met up in the yard for a little outdoor meeting with all the newest updates and information for that day, and also some stretches. Then, everyone went their own way to start their day’s work.
In the kitchen, music was turned up to full volume. Antoine washed reusable cups every morning with his Catalan team for a gentle start, then he joined another team. All the volunteers talked to each other fairly naturally. At midday, they ate the food made in their kitchens, the same food the migrants ate. They were good times of sharing and coming together.

In the evenings, everybody slept at the campsite in their mobile-homes. There were little parties here and there every night. They invited each other to eat at each other’s houses, it was very friendly. Antoine slept in a caravan with two British volunteers that had been there for over a year, and a girl from Hong Kong who had been there for 4 months. They were very welcoming to him!

Willingness to give your time to help others is an integral part of being a volunteer, so everybody helped each other. An example of this solidarity is a friend who every morning asked everybody in the warehouse whether they wanted a tea or coffee, and brought it to them.

Antoine came back from Calais with a lot of motivation! He took his volunteering back up at the Paris branch of Utopia 56. He then decided to join the emergency housing team, and then the association’s communication team, working from home on very varied tasks, such as organising information conferences in universities or organising meetings between future hosts and and our volunteers, or helping to design our new website. He also asked all his friends to organise Utopia 56 conferences in their schools to improve the association’s visibility.

Here are the eight charities who run from the warehouse:
L’Auberge des Migrants
Refugee Community Kitchen
Help Refugees
Mobile Refugee Support
Refugee Women’s Centre
Refugee Info Bus حافلة المعلومات للاجئين مسیر راهنمای پناهندگان
SALAM Nord/Pas-de-Calais
UTOPIA 56 (who Antoine came to work with in Calais)

Author

Antoine (France)

Translator

Rebecca Wenmoth (United Kingdom)

Der Beitrag A volunteer in Calais: let’s help refugees! erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Anja Meunier / 24.7.2018

Claus-Peter Reisch, Captain of the Lifeline.
Photo: Anja Meunier

The Lifeline is a rescue ship from the civilian sea rescue organisation MISSION LIFELINE, whose crew rescues people from drowning in the Mediterranean. After the ship took 234 people on board in June, first Italy then also Malta forbade them from docking at their ports. It was only after five more days that the ship was allowed to land in Valetta, the capital of Malta, but legal proceedings were immediately started against Claus-Peter Reisch and the ship was seized. We met Mr Reisch at the sidelines of the ‘Ausgehetzt’ (’stop the hate speech‘) rally in Munich.

MH: Mr Reisch, your ship the Lifeline is stuck in Malta right now and cannot leave. Why is that?

Reisch: It’s not just our ship that’s stuck in Malta and not able to leave, but all three ships normally stationed in Malta are not allowed to leave. One because the Maltese traffic authority forbids it, and we are not allowed to because the ship has been seized as evidence in the trial against me. We’re actually just talking about whether or not a certificate is valid, a certificate that has neither expired nor is a fake. The world doesn’t make sense anymore. We’re not talking about sea rescues anymore and that is actually the subject that I care about.

Sea rescuers and refugees on a rubber boad. Photo: Danilo Campanilla / Mission Lifeline

MH: At the moment are there any other civilian ships carrying out sea rescues in the Mediterranean at all?

Reisch: There are three ships out there still, but they are being operated from Spain and are also taking the refugees to Spain. They have to transport the people over long distances, this way the ships are kept out of the sea rescue area. We don’t get to choose which ports we take the people to; they are assigned to us by government agencies. We don’t have a choice of where we bring the people to.

MH: Critics of sea rescues say that if there weren’t any rescue ships, fewer people would brave this crossing. Have you seen any evidence of this in the past weeks, now that fewer sea rescue boats are out there?

Reisch: No, the exact opposite. More people are dying than ever. July 2018 will go down as the most deadly month in the history of sea rescue. The smugglers don’t care if people survive. The deal’s been done, they’ve got their cash, and the people are just being dumped in the sea.

Rescued people on the ship. Photo: Hermine Poschmann / Mission Lifeline

MH: The boats you come across in the sea are often completely unseaworthy. Why is it that the refugees let themselves board these boats?

Reisch: Well, you know, the people have never known sea. They come from sub-saharan countries, from the Sahara. There isn’t any sea there, there’s a sand sea. And then at some point they see this amount of water that they’ve never seen before in their life and then of course lots of people get scared. But if they don’t board the boats on their own, they shoot two or three people on the beach and the others then get on.

MH: The fact that the people are taken to Europe afterwards and not back to Libya or other African countries is often criticised. What is the reason for this?

Reisch: There are several reasons for this. One reason is that we receive the port assignment, the so-called Port of Safety, from the Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome. They assign us a port and we have to go there. I have no free choice in this. The second point is that there is the Geneva Convention on Refugees, and it states that you cannot bring people back to a country from which they are fleeing. I would have to bring the people back to Libya. I am not allowed to do that. I would be guilty of an offence if I did that. Moreover it would be extremely dangerous for my crew, myself, and the ship if I were to enter Libyan waters. A civil war is being fought there, and who voluntarily travels to a country in the midst of a civil war? Tunisia is also ruled out. It is not a country fighting a civil war but it is also not a safe country. The people there are deported in so-called chains of deportation and Amnesty International is reporting about torture and suchlike in Tunisia.

The Lifeline in the Mediterranean. Photo: Hermine Poschmann / Mission Lifeline

MH: The accusations against you and the seizing of the Lifeline and other ships have attracted a lot of media attention. What’s your view on the atmosphere surrounding sea rescues?

Reisch: I think that many people have been reminded that people are dying over there in the central Mediterranean en masse, especially because of the current absence of independent sea rescuers. Incidentally, these ships rescue “just” 40% of the people, the rest is done by merchant vessels, and also partly by the military, which is supposed to be made illegal now as well. If we don’t do it then no one will, and the people will simply die there.

MH: What skills should you have if you want to get involved on deck with civilian sea rescues? Who is needed?

Reisch: At Mission Lifeline we are always happy to welcome operators, experienced ship mechanics, marine technicians, engineers. They have a very important position on the ship. Navigators are also in demand, along with paramedics, electricians, emergency doctors or surgeons and experienced nurses. We also need female members on the ship because we get a lot of women and small children and they just have a different relationship with a female doctor or nurse than with a man.

Rescued people on the ship. Photo: Danilo Campanilla / Mission Lifeline

MH: How can those who don’t dare undertake this difficult job at sea support the rescuers from land?

Reisch: Firstly, and in any event, of course though donations. We finance this ship exclusively through donations. Mission Lifeline costs €2500 a day. We need a relatively large amount of diesel, we always have repairs to make. That is completely normal for such ships. We are also looking for people who could help us in media relations, or in the office.

MH: Do you have any concrete demands to make of the governments, the EU or politics in general?

Reisch: Well, of course, firstly sea rescues must never be criminalised. At the moment they’re trying to force us into this corner, which is completely unviable. I used to be a businessman, I don’t need to earn money from people smuggling, which we also don’t do. Those are entirely unfounded allegations. That has to stop. We need to be given a status so that we can sail with our ships and our qualified crews, that’s very important. And above all we have to start tackling the reasons for fleeing. We’ve been talking about it for 30, 40 years, but nothing’s been done about it. It’s all just chatter with no action.

For more information on how you can support the sea rescuers please click here.

Author

Anja Meunier (Germany)

Studies: Mathematics and Economics

Languages: German, English, Spanish

Europe has… beautiful countries, interesting people, a great lifestyle. And needs to stay together.

500px: Anja Meunier

Translation

Sarah Robinson (United Kingdom)

Studies: French and German Language and Literature

Languages: French, German, English

Europe is… complex and invaluable.

Der Beitrag When people die because their rescuers are standing trial erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Saskia Schäfer / 11.7.2017

In Gunter Gaus’ long interview in 1964 Hannah Arendt described how, as a young child at home, she was not at all made aware that she was Jewish. She said her entirely areligious mother never used that word at home, and this part of her identity was first made known to her at some point through other children’s antisemitic comments on the street. Later, in school, she was instructed to leave the classroom immediately should teachers make any antisemitic comments – mostly about Eastern European Jewish children – and to relay the exact wording to her mother, who would then complain to the headmaster.

Her opinion on the crucial importance of Jewish identity solidified over the years, even before the Holocaust. In the interview she said: ’When you are attacked as a Jew, you have to defend yourself as a Jew. Not as a German or as a citizen of the world or of human rights or something.’

And the neighbours? How does one defend those who are branded as not belonging based on their identity?

In these times of strengthening nationalism with ethnically homogenising perceptions of identity, it is not only Jewish Europeans, but also to a growing extent Muslim Europeans who are subjected to multiple attacks. In Germany these range from the inadequate attempts to come to terms with the executions of nine Turkish-German and Greek-German micro-entrepreneurs by the extreme right, to around ten racially motivated crimes carried out every day in 2016. Muslims, male and female, grandsons and granddaughters of former migrant workers, and those that wish for an open and diverse society are banding together and trying to counter the growing nationalistic fury. But with what? ‘More headscarves on talk shows, more religious diversity in school lesson,’ some say; ‘the abolition of the privileges held by the old-established religions,’ others counter.

Ten years ago the Ethnologue Arjun Appadurai wrote a book about ‘The Fear of Small Numbers’ where he examines the origins of so-called ethnic conflicts. In it he argues that the liberal political theory had originally provided special rights for minorities, which it understood as procedural and temporary amalgamations of people. This is how thinkers like John Stuart Mills and Alexis de Tocqueville wanted to protect political systems from the ‘tyranny of the majority.’ After the European categorisation of different races and ethnicities had then gained acceptance through colonial policy and been disseminated through censuses and maps, these special rights were often delegated to so-called ‘substantial minorities’, that is to minorities that were almost unalterably defined by their ethnic or religious affiliation. Instead of taking a stand for land reforms as exploited farmers one year, and advocating the establishment and outfitting of schools as educationally oriented fathers in the next, the concerns were attributed in the long term to certain ethnically assigned minorities and majorities, and not just from without, but also by the members of these declared minority categories themselves.

These prayer flags in the Yunnan province of Southwestern China signal the presence of the Tibetan ‘ethnic minority’ there. But is a categorisation into different ethnicities justified? © Hannah Illing

I have encountered similar tensions between different possibilities of self-representation of so-called minorities in my own research into public discourses on Islam in Indonesia, the most highly populated majority Muslim country in the world. Since the beginning of democratisation in 1998 the members of both smaller and larger Muslim organisations, as well as LGBTQ Muslims, have increasingly been subject to attacks there. They are accused of using the practices and symbols of Islam even though they are apostates and therefore not Muslims. These allegations appear in different forms and on different levels. An example is the rumour that followers of Ahmadiyya, a now globally active organisation founded in the late 19th century in then British controlled India, have modified the Islamic profession of faith, which would amount to a grave insult to the Prophet. This rumour does not correspond to the actual practices of Ahmadiyya. In actuality praying Ahmadis recite the profession of faith five times a day during their worship. Even the most senior politicians regularly fuel this rumour by, for example, proclaiming at conversion ceremonies: ‘Thank God, the former Ahmadis recite the profession of faith!’ Such statements quickly turn into headlines, and so rumours endure that the Ahmadis are insulting the Prophet. When in 2011 a physical assault on a group of Ahmadis in West Java ended in the death of three Ahmadis, the perpetrators were not only given very light punishments, but the allegedly provocative behaviour of the Ahmadis was highlighted and one of the group was imprisoned for several months after being identified as an agitator.

The Ahmadis have begun to fight back against this and a change in the representation of Ahmadis in the media is being observed. It is becoming obvious just how much they haven’t had a chance to speak in the first place. Their defence was instead taken over by human rights activists. After the attack in West Java Ahmadis themselves were also eventually invited onto the talk shows, and after a handful of speakers emerged, their perspectives were also mentioned in articles. But just how can the Ahmadis defend themselves? Which arguments will be listened to? My discourse analysis shows that two interpretational schemata dominate above all: the argument of religious freedom for minorities, and nationalism. Both are powerful discourses in Indonesia. My hypothesis is that today human rights and nationalism are barely functioning as life lines for the Ahmadis who have been discriminated against and marginalised. But I argue that the severe reduction in public discourses can have dangerous longterm consequences for these two sole interpretational schemata. As the political scientist Elizabeth Shakman-Hurd has demonstrated in her newest book in the field of International Relations, the reduction of identity to one dominant aspect closes the door to the possibilities of diverse alliances. If the majority of Indonesian Muslims don’t see the Ahmadis as brothers and sisters in faith, then it depends on their acceptance of human rights and the strength of national sentiment as to whether or not they will tolerate the existence of the Ahmadis. And indeed, if they see the Ahmadis as human beings at all. We are well aware of how quickly societies change, how quickly categories assigned to groups can be excluded from the community. The shaky tolerance founded on one or a few identity markers gives rise to the twofold danger of this marker losing importance in a society, or of the corresponding category falling out of the group to which it was understood to belong.

What this means for the current situation in Europe, is that it may not only be about defending my neighbours’ right to their otherness, but of consistently questioning to what extent this otherness actually exists. The Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan believes that European Muslims are not a minority at all, but are simply European citizens. Instead we have to draw on the complexity, temporality, and variability of identities. The identity of the working woman, the father, the girl playing handball, the class parent, the female chemist. Societies have to move beyond the fantasies of homogenisation brought on by strengthening nationalisms and the splintering into more and more fragmented identities, and they must find a way to acknowledge specific identities without putting them in the way of the fluid and constantly renegotiating formation of procedural and problem-oriented alliances.

This article was first published on thenewfederalist.eu, the magazine of the Young European Federalists. The content they produce is also published in French, Spanish, German and Italian.

Author

Saskia Schäfer (Germany)

She is a political scientist, received her PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin and has completed research stays at Columbia University in New York and at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include discourse and media analysis, religious and political authority, secularism, public morality, Islamic feminism and Islam. Saskia Schäfer has carried out extensive research in Southeast Asia.

Translator

Sarah Robinson (United Kingdom)

Studies: French and German Language and Literature

Languages: French, German, English

Europe is… complex and invaluable.

Der Beitrag (Not) A minority: Muslims between inclusion and discrimination erschien zuerst auf MH English.

By Anja Meunier

Even in the first few days after the referendum the number of racist and xenophobic offences escalated in the UK. Polish families found cards in their letter boxes saying „Leave the EU, no more Polish vermin“. People were verbally abused on the street and told to pack their bags.

Anna originally comes from Poland and lives with her British husband and their son in England. On the morning after the referendum a colleague at work advised her to leave the room after she told him she had voted to remain in the EU. “People who I’d known for years hugged me and assured that their leave vote was nothing personal but I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t noticed that side in them before. To be honest it turned my belief in humanity upside down. For the last 15 years I forgot I had an accent, until that morning.”

In the meantime Anna and her husband have been thinking of moving to another EU country. They no longer feel good about being in the UK. “It became a very grey and sad place to be.” They’ll either head back to Poland or go to Italy. “I run a successful music school. We give work to six other staff members and have approximately 200 students. My husband composes music for the media. ”Anna would give all that up in order to start from scratch in a new country. “The first thing I did on Friday morning after the referendum: I applied for a Polish passport for my son. I never thought I’d have to.”

Jenni is also worried by the increase in xenophobia in the UK. She is British but has lived in Germany for 15 years. Her son was born there with a disability. After the result of the referendum was announced she felt betrayed. “I felt as if my country had branded me a ‘filthy immigrant’ as they were calling for a stop on immigration.” Moving back to the UK is now out of the question for her. “When I read about the racism, I wondered when the abuse and discrimination towards people with disabilities will start.” To make sure that she will be able to live and work in Germany in the future she is now applying for German citizenship for herself and her son. “The Germans have all been very welcoming so far.”

Josie is a student of European and Political Science in London. She also thinks that her home country has changed for the worse after the referendum. “I feel like there’s a worryingly large group of people who voted leave for racist reasons, and that they think the leave vote has kind of legitimised their racist opinions. Of course there were problems before the referendum, but it feels like this ‘little England’ mentality has become far more vocal since the result.”

Josie’s boyfriend is Polish and lives in Warsaw. After she graduates she would like to live abroad in Europe. That could be less easy in the future. “Although nothing concrete has changed yet, I feel like I’m having to rethink a lot of my life plans that I’d just taken for granted. Do I have to get a ‘useful’ skill now so that another country will let me in for example?”

Gallery: “March for Europe” on 3 September 2016 in London

Whether or not freedom of movement will still be granted in Europe in the future is also something that Katie is concerned about. She is British and lives with her Argentinean boyfriend in Argentina. They’re currently expecting their first baby. Katie says that she wishes the same opportunities and freedoms to live, travel and work in other EU countries for her child that she herself enjoyed. “I have been a European my entire life. And now that has been taken away from me. My child will now never know what that is,” she says. “When I woke up that Friday morning, and saw that we had decided to leave as a country, I cried. I literally burst into tears and cried, because I could just see all the opportunities that were taken away from my unborn child.”

The young family’s plans for the future are being put on hold for now. Katie and her boyfriend would like to obtain a ‘Certificado de Convivencia’ in Argentina, a registered partnership for those living together, an equivalent of which does not exist in the UK, but does in the likes of Spain and the Netherlands. “With that he has the right to residency in a European country, with his European partner, me. But now that we are leaving the European Union, we don’t have that opportunity.” The UK has stricter immigration laws for citizens outside of the EU than other member states, but if you spend a longer period in another EU member state a move to the UK would no longer be a problem. “So now, essentially, the only way that we can be together as a family, is to get married, which is not something that either of us believe in.”

Will the result in the UK remain an isolated case or will there be further referendums and exits? That probably also depends on whether the British manage to shape their new situation to their advantage. “Theresa May seems like a very pragmatic person, so I think and hope that she would focus on retaining free trade in the EEA, which would have to come with free movement,” Josie says. What she thinks of David Davies though she doesn’t yet quite know. “I don’t know a lot about him but it already seems as though he’s making these bold claims like Boris Johnson was making, about how we’ll be able to get everything we want, but I don’t believe for a moment that that’s true, not without a compromise.”

Jenni emphasises how important the EU is for peace in Europe and urges not to disregard history. “There seems to be a strong tendency for far right groups to be gaining support and a louder voice. We need to look back at Europe in the 1930s and since then, and learn our lessons. The voice of reason has to be heard and facts, not fear, need to win.”

Those who would like to improve the EU should do it from the inside, according to Katie. “At least if you stay in the European Union, you can say, ‘Well we don’t like it, because of this, this and this, and we’d like this to change’, rather than just kind of washing your hands of it and saying ‘Ok I’m done, I’m leaving’. I think that was an incredibly naïve decision on the part of the British public.”

If it should come to further plebiscites Katie can only recommend actually showing up to vote. “Don’t be apathetic. Don’t think, ‘Oh, my vote doesn’t count’, don’t think that the nationalists will never win. The only way to stand up for your right to remain part of the European Union is to go and make sure that you vote.”

Author

Anja Meunier (Germany)

Studies: Mathematics and Economics

Languages: German, English, Spanish

Europe has… beautiful countries, interesting people, a great lifestyle. And needs to stay together.

500px: Anja Meunier

Translator

Sarah Robinson (United Kingdom)

Studies: French and German Language and Literature

Languages: French, German, English

Europe is… complex and invaluable.

Der Beitrag Nothing has changed yet, but everything is different – The UK after the referendum erschien zuerst auf MH English.

Renting a flat in Dublin requires PPS (something like a Security Number), a working pass, a bank account -with money, obviously- and a lot of patience. If you don’t have all of these, you could try your luck sharing the expenses with one or more people, often without the landlord knowing that you live there. Or maybe he knows but ignores the situation. In this case you’re taking a risk: if a conflict arises, fraud or any other kind of problem, you have no legal contract that guarantees you live there.

The most economical options in Dublin cost about 300 euros; we’re talking about paying the monthly rent of a bed in a shared room with two or more people and others in the same house. As is usually the case in other European capitals, the high renting demand in the Irish capital leads to issues such as swindling, extortionate prices and students conglomerations in little flats sharing a single bathroom.

“Many people and few houses. I heard about nine people sharing one house with a single bathroom”

Davide, Italy

What’s more, there are swindlers in the property market or scams that produce misleading or fake advertisements on the Internet promising affordale and central flats. Most of the victims are students that are not yet in the city but want to have a place to stay when they arrive.

”Paying for a flat online can be very dangerous. A lot of people are taken in when they want to book a flat on the Internet and they pay the swindlers, so they lose their money and the apartment.”

Nina, Croatia

There are several options in the Irish capital for students who arrive to the city looking for a room to rent in the long or short term. The following people will explain their experiences:

[See image gallery at en.meetinghalfway.eu]

Shared flats

It’s one of the cheapest ways to find a place to live because the price to pay is split between all tenants, as are the bills from the different services provided.

“At the moment there are a lot of people looking for houses and flats in Dublin, so most vacancies are expensive taking into account what they really are: little rooms, shared flats, etc. I found my first house after 5 days of searching and searching. I chose the first house that said “yes” because I was afraid of not finding anywhere and I only had a week to leave the student accommodation.”

Isis, Brazil

Costs can vary depending on the room, as it can be shared with one or more people and prices fluctuate between 250 and 400 Euros; or you could also have a single room, which would be about 400 to 600 Euros, depending on the area.

“I shared a house with two couples and I had a single room. I paid 420 Euros per month, all expenses included. Before I arrived I had already booked a hostel in the city center, so after my arrival I started my search. It’s quite easy finding a flat if you have good references. I found it really fast, so I didn’t live in a bad flat, but I visited some horrible places.”

Gautier, France

Not only are rooms shared, but so are communal areas and any damages that may be there before you arrive as most of flats are not new.

I lived with many people and shared a room with 4 girls. The house had just a kitchen and a bathroom. The bathroom had mould and the house wasn’t well kept nor modern.

Irene, Italy

[See image gallery at en.meetinghalfway.eu]

Subletted flats

There are people who rent a flat and then rent a room to someone else due to the high flat demand, so the original rent of a flat can shoot up to two times its price. Natasha, a Brazilian student, arrived in Dublin in November 2014 and she paid 375 Euros for a bed in a students’ residence. From then to now, she has moved 4 times and it took her 2 months to find a place in a shared room with 3 students the first time she moved.

“The boy who let us a room in the house told us that the rent of that place was about 1.200 Euros in total. However just with our room he was earning 900 Euros. People make money doing these things with houses and fats.”

Natasha, Brazil

Besides the outrageous prices, many flats are not in good condition or they are just kept in general order in order to rent out and get money for them.

“I lived in a place in Capel Street where the house was under the basement. It had no windows. We never knew whether it was day or night if we didn’t look at a watch or go outside. We used to share the house with three or more people and we had to hide from the owner because tenants were the ones renting us the place. It was such a disaster.”

Natasha, Brazil

Host Families

Another option for students who want a place to stay when they arrive in Dublin -as it’s an Irish authorities’ requirement- are host families. It means that a local family gives you a room and food for an agreed price. Inga arrived in the Irish capital from Germany in April 2015. She found a room fast as she consulted an agency which found a room for her where she paid 700 Euros. Even though the process was not difficult, the experience with the host family wasn’t too good either. Inga told us this:

“My host mother used to play the piano at midnight. At night it was very cold so I caught a cold and I was ill for two weeks. My host mother complained all the time and was very talkative. She was very selfish”.

Inga, Germany

She moved to another host family after a while, which was recommended by her boss where she started working in Ireland. She paid 430 Euros in this new place and despite the fact that the house was far away from the city center, Inga had a better experience this time:

“My second room was better. I had a lot of freedom and I had a TV. My host mother was volunteering and used to rescue dogs. It was easy for me to find the room because I had some contacts.”

Inga, Germany

Paying an agency, having contacts or looking for a flat on your own is all part of the process to finding accommodation in Dublin. Europeans as well as non-Europeans share the problem of finding a flat in the Irish capital.

Frauds and high rental prices are very common amongst students that not only arrive to the Emerald Isle to deal with the cultural shock, but to also deal with the problem of finding a place and space to satisfy what is considered a basic requirement: a place to live.

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Author

Karen Elías (Mexico)

Study/Work: Communication Sciences, Content Creator, Journalism Photography

Languages: Spanish and English

Europe is… where cultures converge

Translator

Miriam Vázquez (Spain)

Study: Journalism and Political & Administrative Sciences

Languages: Spanish and English

Europe is… a unique place where people from different cultures, languages and points of view live together

Proofreader

Ashika Bhatt (England)

Work: Au Pair in Germany

Speaks: English, French, German

Europe is…culture

Der Beitrag Renting a flat in Dublin, the hurdle every foreign student has to face erschien zuerst auf MH English.

The first time I heard about Gianfranco Tripodo was in a church. Specifically, in the Niuewe Kerk, a religious temple located in the centre of Amsterdam which annually hosts one of the most prestigious photojournalism competitions, the World Press Photo. It is impressive to see images of the wars in Syria, Gaza and Ukraine among huge stained glass windows and stone pillars. It was there that I found the photograph of Gianfranco Tripodo, winner of one of the awards in the category ‘General News’.

The first time I saw Tripodo (Manila, 1981) in person was at a cafe in Madrid. He arrived early to the appointment and was already working on the large wooden table of the cafe, full of papers. The mobile in one hand, a list of tasks to be done in the other, and a coffee waiting to be drunk during the interview.

I wanted to start talking about the winning photograph, how were the circumstances surrounding the image.

I had been working on the subject for three years but I knew I was missing the photo of the jump over the fence [the Spanish city of Melilla, located in northern Africa, is separated from Morocco by a triple border fence]. For one reason or another I was always missing that moment, sometimes because the Civil Guard stopped me, other times because I just left the day before it happened. In fact, I had already decided that that would be my last stay and it was my last day of work in Melilla. I was in the CETI [Temporary Stay Centre for Foreigners] doing an interview when I was notified that a jump was taking place. When I got to the area I found about 40 people on top of a booth next to the border. When they got to jump the last fence, the clashes with the police began and they started to deport people back to Morocco. Some escaped and managed to hide under the car shown in the photograph. I remember I was shooting a scene that was happening to my left, I don’t even remember what, and suddenly I turned and saw these two people under the car. One of them is not seen in the picture because he’s behind the other. I photographed them and went on to something else I do not remember. It was all very fast. Later I found out that the two were able to stay in Melilla and not be deported at that time.

How do you choose the topics and places that you want to photograph?

They are coincidences, though I am not too interested in ‘breaking news’ topics anyway. In fact, when I started in Ceuta and Melilla the issue was not in the spotlight and there was barely anyone covering the events. I was alone and because of that I could access the CETI of Ceuta.

I have seen your photos of the CETI, in which you depict the football team created by the immigrants of the Centre themselves. I think it’s good to have images that show people, because we usually only get pictures of immigrants as if they were an undefined mass.

For me it is a long-term matter, so I’m not trying to sell anything to the newspapers. That’s why I did not suffer the pressure that freelancers do, who go directly to the scene to take the topical photo. It gave me time to get more images of the context.

How do you compensate for being able to spend so much time on projects that are unpaid on the short term?

I work for magazines and commercial clients that allow me to earn some money and then dedicate myself to these initiatives.

You gain time, so to speak.

Indeed. And by that I can decide. Having a sustainable economy to make my own projects is something I have thoroughly calculated.

Do you remember the time you told yourself you wanted to devote to this?

I’ve always liked photography, in fact, for First Communion I got a camera, the typical automatic Nikon I still have. As a teenager I always carried a camera with me and when I got to college I became interested in documentary photography. But the definitive inflexion moments came when I moved to Madrid and was assistant to Ricky Dávila and when I collaborated with Cesura Lab, a group of young Italian photographers who are very in touch with Alex Majoli, a photographer of the Magnum Agency.

It must be something pretty vocational as the beginnings seem complicated.

Well, the beginning is very complicated …

Is it necessary to persevere?

Alex Majoli always says that the key lies in determination.

The other day I read an interview with Manu Brabo and he said the same thing, in the end you have to be stubborn.

Yes, it’s being stubborn. We must work hard and make many sacrifices. For example, I hardly see my friends from Naples and I always reserve a month of my vacation time to go somewhere on my own, just to take pictures. And all the money always goes to producing projects or purchasing equipment.

Which cameras do you usually use?

I always try to optimize the equipment. Right now I’m working with Olympus, a camera without a mirror, small. I have other Olympus bodies and three or four lenses. I prefer to use fixed focals, I have 28, 35 and 50. I do most of the pictures with that.

Do you decide to use black and white depending on the subject you’re taking?

It depends somewhat on the issue, yes. The black and white has the capacity for abstraction, which I think that for certain things is more powerful. Most of my references are photographers who use black and white, so when I started I felt much more comfortable using this kind of language, very different from the color one. But every time I feel more comfortable with color and I’m using it more.

Who are those referents that you’ve mentioned?

I like portrait pictures a lot, for example Richard Ravedon. I also follow Anders Petersen, Daido Moriyama, Paolo Pellegrin, Laia Abril…
Is there a kind of clique in the photojournalists world, or is a lone wolf profession?
It is a lonely job. I have a number of friends with whom I share experiences and photos, but the world of photojournalism and photo documentary is very small. More or less everyone knows each other, we know who is who and what they do.

Is there competitiveness among colleagues?

A lot.

Healthy? Or do you steal topics from each other?

Both types, both. It depends on each one, it is an extremely competitive world, because it’s teeming and the outflows of your work go to few media outlets, 20-50 worldwide. And at the same time there are a thousand people who want to access those outlets. From this thousand there are 500 who are extremely good. There is a lot of competition.

Many photographers complain about the lack support from the media, they say that the photographer is undervalued.

Especially in Spain. The situation is complicated. The media are few, it is very difficult to get to work with them and they do not cover difficult issues.

Difficult in what way?

Topics that could raise controversy. They tend not to cover them.

Why do you think they don’t?

Because in the end, all media, to a greater or lesser extent, are funded by advertising. When editors and publishers gather, they not only gather to do journalism, but they have in mind what their advertisers and management boards might say, which are not formed only by journalists but by shareholders and people who have nothing to do with this. What does that mean? Well, that maybe controversial issues such as evictions have not appeared in the media, although it is a big issue and a social emergency in Spain.

They have only appeared in the alternative media …

Yes, and there are photographers such as Olmo Calvo who have been working on this for a very long time and have brought up the subject abroad. In addition they have published it with great galleries, very in depth. It’s an issue they hardly let you publish in Spain.

Publishing is not allowed because of the opposition of banks that are advertised in the press?

Yes, you get blocked. In the editorial board there are influences. The same happens with the issue of Melilla, they have showed it only when it’s been an emergency and has been on the front page. But they lack in-depth reports that speak of the situation of Syrians in Melilla, for example.

Lets continue with political issues, because I’m sure you know that it has recently been approved in Spain, the so called ‘gag law’ . How does it affect you, for example?

They are trying, and I think they are succeeding, that you think twice before taking the picture. Because if they consider it appropriate, they can put penalise you directly. It is the police and not a court, which will decide whether it’s right or wrong what you’re doing. No possible trial. Most of these complicated issues are covered usually by freelancers and they can not afford to pay a 30,000 or 60,000 Euro fine. What this law does is to criminalize free information, it is a law of the dictatorship itself.

Could you have been fined for your winning photo?

Not for this particular picture, as police officers don’t appear. But before taking the picture there was a space negotiation with the agents. Today those negotiations could end up with “If you continue you’ll get a fine.”

You work as a freelancer. Would you rather stay that way?

Yes, yes. I do not want to a contract with anyone.

Because of the freedom?

Yes, and because I started in this with the crisis, in 2007…

And in the end you’ve got a good result thanks to this photo because you’ve been given the prize. Did you expect something like this?

No, you never expect it. You always wish for it, you dream of this and every year you sign up for the prize, but you never expect it.

Like Santa Claus …

It’s a bit like the lottery. 100,000 photos have been submitted this year. Of all of those, 40 will pass, and that from these 40 yours wins is almost like a small miracle.

Has the prize somewhat changed your life, besides having people like me interviewing you?

Besides (laughs). Certainly your name is better known and it also gives you a certain prestige. It’s a note in the curriculum that stands out. But I think it does not make you a better or worse photographer. My way of working has not changed, neither has my personality.

How do you get to differentiate yourself, other than through the perseverance that you mentioned before?

Through the stories that you do and the kind of mission that you have as a photographer. I would not call it style, but has to do with how you are as a person. Your vision really is your personality, your way of being in the world. That’s what sets you apart over others covering the same story.

From what I see the traditional photographer working for only one means …

Has died. And I believe for certain things that is even better.

But it is more unstable.

It is much more unstable, which leads to people taking advantage and to a very strong precariousness. As they know everybody is desperate, they lower prices, the conditions are abusive, they disregard image rights and so on. This seems dreadful to me and I think that as photographers, as a freelancer, we need to have a very clear and strong position on these abuses and establish that under certain conditions we won’t work and that’s it, no possible mediation. That said, in general it’s a great season for photography because everything is yet to be invented. You do what you want. There are digital platforms on which the public is more committed and visually educated. It allows you to do many more things. I find it amazing. To me that figure of the photographer who has only worked with three customers throughout their life seems boring, horrible.

The exhibition of the photographs awarded at the World Press Photo will involve up to 100 locations, including Madrid, Moscow and Mexico City
For more information: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/exhibitions
Gianfranco Tripodo will soon publish a book about the “Southern Border” project, which will include the winning photograph of the World Press Photo.

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Author

Ignacio Urquijo (Spain)

Studies / Works: Journalism and International Relations

Speaks: Spanish, English and basic German

Europe is… the perfect place to start the trip

Blog: www.ignaciourquijo.wordpress.com

Twitter: @nachourquijo

Translation

Leire Larrea (Spain)

Studies/Works: Business Administration

Speaks: Spanish, Basque, English, some portuguese and italian

Europe is… the place to be!

Proofreader

Sarah Robinson

Studies: French and German Language and Literature

Languages: French, German, English

Europe is… complex and invaluable.

Der Beitrag “The key to being a good photographer lies in the determination” erschien zuerst auf MH English.

They stand in a circle and throw one another a ball. Whoever catches it introduces himself and welcomes the class with a ‘good morning’ in her or his own language. 14 people catch the ball. In eight cases the greeting sounds different. The teenagers of 10b who attend classes at the Kolping educational center in Schwandorf come from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, and the Dominican Republic. Their teacher, Anna Hanf, is from Hungary. The pupils fled to Germany alone or with their families in hope of a better future. The youngest are 16, the oldest in their mid-20s. They are mainly taught German, but gym classes, social education, cooking, and crafts are on the agenda as well. Everything seems so familiar, and yet everything is actually quite different.

The classroom walls are covered with hand-drawn posters, bearing titles such as ‘our Arab song’, ‘our Spanish song’, ‘We can count to ten – in six languages: Spanish, Kurdish, Persian, Bosnian, Czech, and Tigrinya’ as well as rules of conduct, explanations of prepositions, and a Christian cross. Two girls from Syria in head shawls sit on opposite sides of the room. The Greek Anastasia from another class tells us that conflicts about the different religious have already led to scuffles. At the same time one can see that everyone is equally welcomed here regardless of the religion he or she belongs to. The teenagers could be role models for peaceful and tolerant coexistence.

Recapitulating last week’s circus project and learning new words from the same lexical field is this lesson’s main task: walking, dancing, unicycle, clown, flying, throwing. The last two especially cause trouble. Why is it wrong to say: ‘I can fly the ball’? Not all questions can be answered immediately, because it is loud and lively in the room. The spiritless lethargy of German students doesn’t exist here. And yet, the lessons do not lack structure. Reasons for learning seem to differ. Their banter could as easily be overheard among young Germans: ‘Ey, dude! What are the heck are you talking about?’ But some stay silent and take longer if they try out some new wordplay. They only began to learn the alphabet a few months ago. It’s hard to find a way to teach such a mixed class and stay fair to everyone. The levels of education and previous knowledge are very different. Mrs. Hanf has decided to use the intermediates in her class as a point of orientation, even if that runs the risk of demanding too little from some and too much from others. Finding a book for this approach is hard though.

And even less of a manual exists for the right way to interact with young people who have experienced things they cannot talk about; and that doesn’t just have to do with a lack of language skills. Mrs Hanf explains that it often takes a long time until some have built enough trust and are emotionally in a position to talk about their past. But there is yet another reason for remaining silent about their experiences. People seeking asylum are sent back into the country where their fingerprints were first stamped. According to the Dublin Convention, this is the country that is in charge of the decision about their applications for asylum. Many applicants keep silent about the routes they took so as not to thwart the chances of those who follow in their footsteps, or of being able to seek asylum in Germany themselves.

Nobobdy knows how Senait, supposedly 16 years old, made it from Eritrea to Germany without being caught before, or which route he took. But here he is: without a passport – probably burnt a long time ago – without a date of birth, and without a family. He might not know the alphabet quite yet, but he has had a grasp of the German sentence structure long before the others did. Much like the others, Senait knows what he is studying for. He is not bored. School is new to him, and exciting. When the text that they have composed together is read at the end of class, some even raise their hand a second time to do it better than before. It’s in no small part down to the teacher that the students understood that they haven’t made it to a land of milk and honey, but that they need to learn in order to find a job. Despite this knowledge, many stop taking classes early and seek work instead. Many have left families in their home countries who are waiting for financial support, not for them to complete two years of school and obtain a qualification.

The fear of deportation is also everywhere. It dominates classroom interaction, more than homework, or the capital cities in social science class where Mrs. Maxim wants to teach her pupils the major institutions of the European Union. They are supposed to learn how to understand the system they ended up in. This causes vociferous resistance in class. Time and again they heckle her: ‘Why do I need to know this? I don’t want to stay here. Nobody wants me here! I’m going to the US!’

24-year-old Hamit, who fled by foot from Afghanistan after he had lost his wife and family in the war, explains that he has already found a lawyer. He plans on suing if he is deported. He says he intends to try everything to escape the Taliban. ‘Hope is a lie,’ he repeats again and again. Why start an education? He’s going to be 27 in three years. What should he start at this point? If he cannot complete his education in time or has to leave before, all the effort will have been wasted. He sees no prospects for himself. ‘It’s a catastrophy for the individual when they have to return to their homeland. We are very touched every single time, but the decision of who can stay is not for us to make. We can only hope to offer our students a good time, human warmth, an education, and maybe some hope,’ Mrs Maxim says.

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Author

Marion Wießmann (Germany)

Studies: German Language and Literature

Speaks: German, English, and Spanish

Europe is… interesting.

Illustration

Luzie Gerb (Germany)

Studies: Art History, Fine Arts and Comparative Cultural Studies

Speaks: German, English, Swedish, French

Europe is… full of magical places, interesting people and their stories.

Website: luzie-gerb.jimdo.com

Der Beitrag A New Beginning erschien zuerst auf MH English.

Natalia Litvinova (copyright: Fernando Quiceno)

Thinking about Natalia Litvinova is like remembering those childhood moments where we discovered, for the first time, that if we painted with yellow wax over blue then it would create a new colour.

With the permission of Federico García Lorca, we can say that Litvinova is the colour green inside the colour pallete of poetry.  She has taken advantage of her Belarusian roots, which have been watered down by living in Argentina for more than half of her life to create poems like this:

Crying out, so to speak

 I was given the gift to go into the furthest possible

But not returning

It is not birch.  It is I who shudders under your skin.

Translating in Russian is not the same as Spanish

Translating in the two languages

Doubly impossible

Natalia Litvinova (from ‘Split’)

This poem will be translated in Meeting Halfway in more than 10 languages (Italian, Turkish, German…).  Do you think that it will be the same poem in each language?

No it won’t be the same poem.  Each version will produce its own accent, another climate, rhythm, more humidity, dryness or hardness, and flair.

You were born in the same year as the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.  Has this affected you in any part of your life?

It was one of the reasons for which we emigrated to Argentina.  Chernobyl affected my language, my childhood, my memories, and my syntax.  It is an event that is very much present in my life.  Many classmates and children of my age, stayed in Gomel after the Chernobyl disaster, and they died of various illnesses caused by the radiation.  Somehow, a part of me died with them, accompanying them.

When you arrived in Argentina, at 10 years old, could you speak Spanish?

No, I couldn’t.  Only the word “Hola”.  I remember that not being able to speak the language filled me with shame.  I felt embarrassed all the time, even with gestures.  I turned into a quiet girl.

Did you find the learning process difficult?

Children learn faster.  The daughter of my neighbours played with me and taught me, and I learnt this way, through pictures that she had in a textbook and then I would remember the accompanying word. I would memorise the lessons that were given in school so I wouldn’t have to repeat a year.  I listened to my voice without being able to understand it, although it sounds strange, I thought I could see my voice roll through the air, everything was strange for me.

I have always thought that the moment you start reading poetry in another language, you’ve reached the “summit” of learning, because poetry is like the soul of language, it’s the most difficult thing to understand. When did you start to understand poetry in Spanish?

I didn’t understand poetry.  Its grace was so tremendous.  Poetry quivered within me in the way music makes me tremble.  I don’t understand music.  It expands inside me like a fungus, like moss. It redefines me.  It makes me vulnerable and powerful at the same time.

And when did you start to write your own poetry in Spanish?

At 13 or 14 years old, after having read Lorca in the library in the basement of my school.  The music of his poems poisoned me; I was under poetry like a a spell, a potion that I needed to recreate again and again to make the magic last a little longer.

Natalia Litvinova (copyright: Fernando Quiceno)

Why did you decide to write in Spanish instead of Russian?

Because, maybe, I thought subconsciously that I wanted someone to read them at some point, because I thought of sharing my poems with someone, so that someone could read them without looking at me and saying something.

Are there feelings or themes which you think are easier to write in one language or the other?

If a topic is easy then I do not dwell on it.  I do not sniff at it, I don’t go back.  If it is easy and there is no way that you can take each layer apart to reach total nudity… But now I think of it, I could wear it, right?

In your poem, ‘Your eyes have turned my ashtray’ you wrote, ‘I read the testament of Kafka only as a letter of love/ soon the snow will fall in Paris.  In Russia also, another snowfall/ the Spring will arrive through the stomach’’.  With your metaphor, you contradict another Argentine, Cortázar, in the sentence, “all of the fires, the fire”.  What did you want to convey with this image?

With “Your eyes have turned my ashtray”, I wanted to express the locations of the snow that do not reach me.  The snow in Russia, the country of my childhood, to which I cannot return, and the snow in Paris, the country of my lover, who had written this poem in secret.  In my first book snow is the primary metaphor, as necessary as air, impalpable, impossible snow, like love, childhood and staying somewhere forever.

In your poems you often recall you childhood or feelings that seem very personal.  Are you conscious, that whilst you are writing, that your secrets could end up being public?

There is neither fear nor discomfort that could slow down my writing.  When ‘Esteparia’, my first book was in the process, the poems fell into each other, like matured fruit; it was something that could not be avoided.  They joined and went through an extensive process of correction, still not even thinking about publishing.  At this point I only knew for sure that if I didn’t write, I couldn’t take a train, shower or eat.  Writing was necessary to fill my day.

Question of influence… What matters when writing poetry?

What if poetry is invasive?  Many times I have sought to write poetry about something specific, I felt clever proposing a theme of a poem.  And I end up losing.  Poetry overwhelms me like the cry of a tribe calling, and I pay attention.  Sometimes writing is like uprooting the days of the calendar to go towards all of the seasons.  Also to go towards the present, to reveal it.

In addition to writing your poems, you translate others’ poems, from Russian to Spanish.  What is your worst fear when translating poems?

When translating I take many things into consideration, such as not overdoing the poem, not giving it extra weight, listening to their music, their rhythm.  I respect the silences that the poet has constructed in their poems.  Translation is something that means travelling to the landscape of the poet, to feel their pulse, to go behind their humour, to the nature of their humour.  And moreover, the translator works on their own demise.

Do you try to get to meet the author of what you are translating so that you know what they want to say exactly or do you prefer to translate from personal feelings that the verses have evoked?

I started translating poems that took my breath away, those that disturbed me enough to change my attitude, those that deprived me of rigidity and made me wobble.  I wanted to share these works with my friends.  Therefore I started to translate the Russian classics from poets of the Russian Silver Age and some others from the Golden Age. Nowadays I am discovering the Russian poets of my generation.  I investigate their lives, I try to make ties, I look into their photos.  I keep a collection of photos from all of the poets for whom I translate and I am incapable of sweeping them aside and not integrating them into my life.

You have also had your poems translated into French, because you “live” in both worlds.  The translator and the translated… Where do you feel more comfortable?

I don’t feel comfort.  The comfort calms me down.  When my poems are translated I feel flattered, surprised, touched, lost and thinking about what no longer belongs to me.  Being a translator doesn’t bring me comfort either and this excites me. Each translation brings new challenges, new dangers and a new language.

Which Russian poets would you recommend to us?

Aleksei Tsvetkov, Cherubina de Gabriak, Arkadi Kutilov, Vladislav Jodasevich, Osip Mandelstam, Innokenti Annenski, Velemir Jlebnikov, Marina Tsvetáieva… I could continue giving names for at least another ten days.

And Spanish language poets?

Miguel Ángel Bustos, L. M. Panero, César Vallejo, Edgar Bayley, Raúl Zurita, Néstor Perlongher, Jacobo Fijman, Selva Casal, Alejandra Pizarnik…

Now to finish… What is your favourite word in Russian and what does it mean?

In Russian I like the resounding words, those which sound like an insect humming or hissing.

And in Spanish?

“Abalorio” meaning trinket and “carámbano” meaning icicle, because when I say them, I laugh, because these two words are like music that has been sent from somewhere else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP4NA3U2Yjo

Natalia Litvinova (Gomel, Belarus 1986) lived in Argentina since 1996.  As a poet she has published ‘Esteparia’ (Ediciones del Dock, 2010, Argentina; Ártese quien pueda, 2013, España;  Trópico Sur Editor, 2013, Uruguay; Llantodemudo ediciones, 2013 , Córdoba), la plaquette traducida al francés, ‘Balbuceo de la noche’ (Melón editora, 2012, Argentina), ‘Grieta’ (Gog y Magog ediciones, 2012, Argentina), ‘Cortes invisibles’ (Editorial Letras de Cartón, 2012 , Chile), ‘Rocío animal’ (La Pulga Renga, 2013, Argentina) y ‘Todo ajeno’ (Vaso roto, 2013, México-España). As a Russian translator she has compiled the following anthologies. ‘The noise of existence’ (Editorial Leviatán 2013) of the Russian poets Jodasevich and Esénin. ‘The broken mirror’ (Edited by Melón, 2013) of Cherubina of Gabriak, and ‘The anthology of Innokenti Ánnenski’, that will be edited under the stamp of Vaso Roto.

http://www.animalesenbruto.blogspot.de/

http://www.casajena.blogspot.de/

[crp]

Autor

J. Ignacio Urquijo Sánchez (Spain)

Studies / Works: Journalism and International Relations

Speaks: Spanish, English and basic German

Europe is… a mix of amazing cultures, from Shakespeare to Cervantes, from the monastery of Rila to the sunset in Roque Nublo.

Blog: www.ignaciourquijo.wordpress.com

Twitter: @nachourquijo

Translation

Clare Jordan (England)

Studies: German and Spanish

Speaks: English, German and Spanish

Europe is… a fascinating continent rich in culture, with the foundations of incredible history and with the aspirations of a bright future.

Translation

Cathy Moscardini (England)

Studies: Spanish and Chinese

Speaks: English, Spanish and Chinese

Europe is… for exploring!

Der Beitrag “Translating in Russian is not the same as in Spanish” erschien zuerst auf MH English.

Wanda, Dominika and Matus are just a few Slovaks who decided to study at Czech universities. Whether it was just an accident, a long-standing ambition or simply getting that feeling to achieve more, they all agree on one thing. They all think that Czech universities are much better than Slovak ones and that they are a good starting point for life. The perception that the West is better, although may be just the remnants of communist ideas, is still a strong argument for thousands of students whose are applying for Czech universities.

Wanda: “I don’t feel like I belong to the country I was born to but rather to the country where I chose to go.”

“I remember running across the apartment with a Czech flag when I was 6,” laughs Wanda, a Slovak girl who studies at Mendel University in Brno. She has always been sympathetic towards the Czech Republic but the real reason she moved there was to get a better education. “The Czech school system is few levels higher than the Slovak one and I’m not just talking about Masaryk University in Brno or Charles University in Prague,” explains Wanda. “I think that Czech universities are better than Slovak ones in general.”

Wanda is one of the 13,000 Slovaks who decided to leave their home country after graduating from college, to continue with their university studies in the neighbouring Czech Republic. In their eyes, they did not even go abroad. To think of the Czech Republic as a foreign country from the perspective of Slovak is laughable. Moreover the Slovaks feel at home there.

“I don’t feel like a foreigner here. Maybe it is because we always watch Czech news and movies back at home and I also always read Czech books. I have been exposed to the Czech language since I was little,” said Wanda. As a result she didn’t really get much of a culture shock when she arrived in the Czech Republic.

Wanda is one of those not planning on going back to her home country. “My parents think that staying in Slovakia is stagnating. Since I was a little kid, they always told me that the world is huge and I should travel.”

Kidneys, duvet covers, ink stains and blueberries

Despite almost all Slovak children and a number of Czech children having a bilingual education, young Slovaks are sometimes confronted with being misunderstood by Czech classmates. Throughout childhood, Slovak children watch cartoons in the Czech language, they then go on to watch teenage series’ in Czech too. Books are not being translated from Czech to Slovak anymore either. Slovaks pretty much understand everything when someone speaks to them in Czech. But it is not so simple on the other side of the border. Moravians do not have a problem with speaking Slovak, but if you speak Slovak with a Czech person from Bohemia, some language barriers may appear. For example, words like ‘blueberry’ (čučoriedka in Slovak, borůvka in Czech), ‘ink stain’ (SK machuľa, CZ kaňka) or some useful expressions such as ‘printer’ (SK tlačiareň, CZ tiskárna) can provoke some surprised gazes from people.

“I sometimes come across words that are different from ours. I study pharmacy they are mostly specific pharmaceutical terms which I have to remember,” explains Dominika Lenciová, who studies Veterinary Sciences and Pharmacy at university. “I remember at the beginning of the year that a few people from my course didn´t understand when I said ‘I am thirsty’ (in Slovak – Som smädná and in Czech – Mám žízeň), they also didn’t know words like ‘camel’ (Slovak –  ťava, Czech – velbloud), ‘turtle’ (Slovak – korytnačka, Czech – želva) and they laughed at me when I said ‘I am going to print something’ (Slovak – vytlačiť, Czech – vytisknout),” she continued with a smile.

A bilateral agreement between the two countries makes it easier for Slovaks to study in the Czech Republic. It guarantees the same conditions for Czech and Slovak students alike. All of their essays and coursework can be written in Slovak. In addition, exams and tests can be sat in Slovak. “On my course there are quite a few students who are Czech and I get on with them all very well. Sometimes I get on with them better than I do with the Slovaks,” laughed Dominika and she even added that there is no discrimination amongst them at all. “Professors treat everyone in the same way. It doesn’t matter if they are from Slovakia or the Czech Republic. One of our professors is even trying to speak to us in Slovak this year,” exclaimed Dominika extremely grateful.

Dominika came to the Czech Republic because of her vision for a better future. “I decided to go and study in the Czech Republic mainly because of the quality of the universities. They have a much higher level of teaching especially in Natural Sciences. In my country they do not invest money into the sciences, and that is one of the reasons that studying here is more promising for my future job prospects after graduation. If I am planning on going back to Slovakia after graduation then this is the answer to achieving success.” said Dominika who also has a second home in Brno.

Brno is Mecca for Slovak and Czech students

Masaryk University in Brno is one of the most popular universities in the Czech Republic. It competes with the prestigious Charles University in Prague mostly because of its progressive and modern methods.

“I decided to go to Masaryk University because of practical reasons. The Department of Media Studies was the only Journalism department in the area that didn’t demand previous experience of published articles as their condition of acceptance,” explained Matúš Frančiak with a smile. Equality between applicants in the application process is one of the reasons why so many Slovaks are applying for Czech universities. Learning Potential Test (this is a standardised test that is part of the admission process for various university institutions in English speaking countries) is only a part of university entrance examinations for entering Masaryk University and it examines analytical, critical and verbal thinking as well as space distribution. This process ensures that universities only accept students who can think about issues and solve problems. Masaryk University has become the university of choice for many Slovak college leavers deciding between universities.

Brno, the town which houses Masaryk University is much more charming than the capital Prague. In addition to Masaryk University, there are a handful of other universities which really make the Moravian metropolis a genuine student’s city. It is definite proof when you visit the city in the summer holidays because the city is empty. But from September until June, this city belongs to the students. This is not only tempting more and more students from the Czech Republic and Slovakia to spent their university life in this city, but also many other nationalities. To put this into perspective, out of the 36,000+ students that apply to Masaryk University every year, 16% of them are Slovak.

Likewise, students Wanda, Dominika and Matúš have not looked back and do not plan on returning home any time soon. “After a few months of doing an internship in Bratislava, I don’t regret my choice to live in the Czech Republic. I am positive that it was the right move,” affirms Matúš.

[crp]

Author

Eva Lalkovičová (Slovakia)

Studies: Media studies and journalism / Spanish language and literature

Speaks: Czech & Slovak obviously :), Spanish, English, just a lil`bit of Catalan and French

Europe is… the best place to be born and live in, an incredible mix of people and cultures.

Translation

Lenka Černáková

Translation

Cathy Moscardini (England)

Studies: Spanish and Chinese

Speaks: English, Spanish and Chinese

Europe is… for exploring!

Der Beitrag “Czech universities feel like home,” say Slovaks erschien zuerst auf MH English.